


The Vice Quadrant

by ChewieKaiju



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Because it was written before the timeline came out, Multi, The Vice Quadrant, This is going to be way different than the timeline, theory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6032788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChewieKaiju/pseuds/ChewieKaiju
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically, my input on how the events of The Vice Quadrant played out. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while. Nothing too fancy, just taking most of what was heard in the album and telling it in a more straightforward story. I took some creative freedom here to fill in most of the blanks with my own personal theories plus several that I've seen floating around. Enjoy it!</p><p>EDIT (as of 3/19/16): Now that the VQ timeline has been released, there isn't much point in me continuing this. However, I'm going to finish writing as it was originally planned, all while trying my best to keep my ideas fresh as if the timeline hadn't been released. That being said, many of the years and events will not line up with the timeline. Instead, I'm going to focus on writing this in its own universe, and not the two universes it took place in in what's canon. So for example, Cosmo and the Astronaut are the same person of different universes in the canon, but here, they're separate people all together. Hopefully this all makes sense, and I hope everybody that's read so far will continue reading until the end!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There Must Be Something

Space. All around was quite literally nothing. It was truly a unique experience. The solitude. The blackness. The peace. Yet, in the calm quietness, there was always the occasional transport ship that cruised through, disturbing the peace of the vast frontier of space. One particular ship, a small cargo ship, cruised along in a seemingly aimless direction.

Inside, they slept. Or to better say, they remained in stasis. They being a trio of singing musical automatons sent up into space in what felt like a lifetime ago. The of the transport was as quiet and peaceful as the outside void. That is, until one of the automatons suddenlywoke with a fright.

“W-we gotta warn the-them!” The automaton, an old copper clockwork bot named Rabbit, yelled fearfully as she sat up. Her yelling had caused enough of a racket that caused the other two automatons to power on.

“What are you going on about?” Rabbit's brother, The Spine, asked sleepily.

“The Earth! We've g-g-gotta g-g-get back home! They need to know!” Rabbit appeared to be the most shaken up of the three. Whatever it was that had frightened her had done a number on her.

“What are you saying?” The Spine asked with obvious concern, “What's happening?”

“I… I d-don’t know exactly what, The Spine. All I know is It-it-it isn't good. It kinda feels like a dream.”

“I know what you mean!” The third of the automatons, Hatchworth, interrupted as he powered on. The Spine took note that he had taken his time to fully boot up. “You had that dream too, right Rabbit?”

“Dream?” The Spine frowned, “I... I don’t think it was any dream. I’ll go check the computer console, see if they were accidentally sending you both a bad signal.” With that, The Spine exited the small bunk room, leaving Rabbit and Hatchworth behind to discuss what they supposedly dreamed.

For a few moments, neither of the two said a word to one another, that is, until Rabbit broke the dreaded silence, “It w-was horrib-b-ble. All those star systems we visited. They won’t help. S-s-so much pain.” The shaking automaton hugged her knees to her chest, “What are they going t-t-t-to d-do?” Rabbit asked her brother, who didn’t respond. After another few moments agonizing silence, Rabbit tried again to speak to him, “Did y-y-you s-see the whales?”

That got a response out of him, “Yes. They appeared to be fleeing something. The last bit I could remember before I awoke were these awful green tendrils.” Hatchworth removed his spectacles and wiped away the steam that had fogged up the lenses. “What do you think it all means?”

Rabbit shook her head, “I d-dunno, Hatchy. There must be something more t-to it. Th-there must be!” Just then, The Spine had reentered the room.

“Well, I checked with the ship, and no, they did not transmit anything into your heads. Maybe something got glitched with our messaging system.”

“B-b-but, The Spine! I-it felt so real! D-did y-y-you dream it too?”  
“Rabbit, that's absurd. Robots do not dream and you know it.”  
“But The Spine!”  
“Enough!”

There was a long pause, and Spine let out a faux sigh, realizing that he had unintentionally frightened his already scared siblings further. “Just… please, go back into stasis. I’m sure everything is fine back home. Everything will be, I promise.”

Hatchworth settled in his cot immediately and started up his standby sequence. Rabbit, however, stayed up and sat in the eerie silence that had once been so comforting. “The Spine?”

“Yeah, Rabbit?”  
“Are y-y-you sure-sure you d-didn’t s-see anything? Any-anything at all?”

The Spine pinched the bridge of his nose. “I didn't, Rabbit. I promise you, whatever this is is not what you or Hatchworth think this whole dream thing is. Everything will be fine, trust me.”

Rabbit stared back at her brother, unsure of whether or not to believe him. After a long moment of consideration, she nodded, “I trust you, The-The-The Spine.”

“Thank you, Rabbit. Try to get some rest. Science knows we’ve earned it.”

Rabbit nodded again, this time with obvious reluctance. She lied back down in her cot and shut herself down. If they were lucky, hopefully there wouldn’t be anymore surprises for the rest of the trip home.

The Spine didn’t shut down until quite some time after his siblings had done so themselves. He needed sometime to think. Walking onto the observation platform, The Spine stared out in the vast emptiness before him. He glanced behind himself, seeing the discarded instruments, The Spine couldn’t help but think to himself on how they ended up here. Not just in outer space, but what events that took place that may have set off the supposed dream his siblings, nay, all three of them had.

He had lied to them, the only reason he could think of was that the dream, if one could truly call it that, had frightened him more than it did the other two. The Spine knew it had to mean something. His gut feeling was that it was some sort of bad omen, and he wasn’t too keen on finding out what it meant. The whole situation seemed completely ridiculous in his eyes. Frightening, but ridiculous. He knew better. Robots can’t dream. But still, one thought continued to probe at his metallic mind. One that didn’t leave his head even as he went back into stasis.

The vision, dream, transmission. Whatever it was. It was nothing, but still something. There seemed like there was more to this than what met the eye.

There must be… something.

There must be something.

Something…

More.


	2. We Could Lose Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A father takes his son to see the spectacle of a lifetime. And Space bears a child.

_Summer: 1965_

 

“Look son, they’re starting to take off.”

The boy, at about the young age of three, looked up from atop his father's shoulders. His eyes widened with excitement as the prototype ships began to take off. For the pair, it was quite a spectacle. “Dad! They’re working!”

He nodded, a grin spreading across his face. “They're going to take us to space one day. Maybe to the moon. And maybe. Just maybe, they’ll take us beyond the stars.” The father looked down from the hilltop at the spaceships he had helped design. Seeing the prototypes he had been working on his whole career as an astrophysicist finally up and running brought tears to his eyes. The man’s mind wondered to a shuttle incident that occurred a few years back. Sure, there were a total of two survivors, but the deaths of the rest of the crew could have been prevented. And finally, after so many attempts. After so many failures, the space shuttles he had worked on for countless hours were nearing completion. Soon, incidents like the one he had been involved with would be a thing of the past.

“Dad, are you going to be in there in space?”  
“No son, not me. My place is down here on Earth with you. Maybe when you’re older, you’ll get a chance to be up there among the stars. In the cosmos.”

The boy’s head turned up towards the afternoon sky. “I don’t know dad. It seems so far away.”

His father responded with a simple chuckle. “Well you don’t have to decide on that immediately. You’ll know in time.” The father shifted uncomfortably, “Alright, down we go. You're getting heavy.” He lowered his son down from his shoulders and knelt down in front of him. “Until then, it's just you and me against the world.” His son giggled happily. The father beamed down at his son and ruffled the boy’s hair.

“Now son, remember,” the man's voice became serious, “don't take all this progress for granted.” The little boy nodded. “All overnight, we could all lose sight of what’s important. It is as Mister E.M. Forester warned. What was his message to our society, my boy?”

“Technology is here to assist us, we should not let it consume us.”

“Right you are, son. Never forget that we control technology, and if that ever becomes flipped, humanity no longer deserves to continue.” The two were silent for a few moments. Through some quick observations, he realized that he had made his son rather uncomfortable. “Hey, don’t look so down, son. We haven’t reached that point as a society. Hopefully, we never will. But if humanity does reach that point in your lifetime, promise me this. Promise me you won’t become a slave to the technology we create.”

The boy was silent for an extra moment. Lost in thought, the boy turned his attention to the hovering prototypes. Finally, he nodded responsively, “I promise, dad.”

With a smile, his father embraced him in a tight, warm hug. “That's a good boy.” He turned his head to the ships, which were beginning to end their test flights. “Still,” he spoke, clearly still in awe of what he had helped create, “you can’t help but be amazed by the feats we accomplish using our technology. I don’t know, maybe we won’t become too dependent on it. Maybe humanity will learn how to work beside it. Yes, that would be comforting.” The man nodded to himself and stood up. “We should get going. Are you hungry for anything?”

His son nodded happily. “Cheese burgers sound good!”

“Alright son, then let's head to the car.” The boy ran ahead while the father trailed behind him. As the two left, the prototype ships touched back down on the Earth, thus finishing their first test flight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the same time, thousands upon thousands of light years away, the human-sent space probe, the Voyager 1 travelled alone in the depths of space. By this point in its personal lifetime, the space probe had been on its journey for millions of years. Millions of years, the Voyager 1 had travelled the blackness of space uninterrupted.

The probe would have certainly continued on peacefully, had it not been for the sudden appearance of a brilliant flash of blue light, which struck the unsuspecting craft and engulfed it within its light. For a few moments, it appeared as if there was going to be a spectacular explosion.

...

But nothing happened, the light contorted its textures and pigments. The shape began to change. From the defined shape that once was the space probe, Voyager 1, the shape shrank into a small circular form.

After what seemed like an eternity, the light, which had turned from a bright blue into a dim purple aura. At the center of this aura, there was a small creature. A child. One whose radiant purple skin was translucent, revealing their cosmic skeletal structure beneath it. In the child's grasp was a small locket, something the child seemed to hold dearly to their chest. Despite the purple translucent skin, the child bared strong resemblance to the woman pictured in the locket. The child's only question was, "Who am I? What am I?" There was a strong sense of longing for a place to be, unusual for a newborn to feel, but this was no ordinary human child.

This was the daughter of space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> E.M Forester was an English novelist who lived from 1879 to 1970. The story I was referencing was a short story he wrote in 1909 called The Machine Stops. It's a really good story, and it predicted a ton of the technology we have today! Another thing, the Voyager 1 space probe was sent into space in 1977, and only recently did it just leave our solar system. And that boy is totally gonna grow up and do some damage. Hint hint. ;)


	3. Come and Smash All My Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Men make their promises to their loved ones, and with a twist of fate, they break those promises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is definitely more lengthy than the last two :D I hope you enjoy it!

_Becile Mansion: 1950_

Two brothers, both named Peter, stood side by side next to the eldest brother’s son-in-law, Guy Hottie. This had to be the place. They'd searched everywhere. The only lead they had pointed here to this very property. They were there because, as far as they knew, a rival family had stolen a piece of very important property, and they had the full intent of taking it back at whatever cost. Neither Peter knew why they didn't check this place to begin with, given the two family's history together.

With a deep breath, the younger of the twin brothers stepped up to the massive door and tried the handle. When that failed, he turned to his brother, looking for advice.

“You tried knocking?” He joked, causing Peter the third to roll his eyes in annoyance. He was such a know-it-all. Suddenly, the group noticed a series of violent flashes of blue light emitting from a nearby cellar window. Guy pointed to the light, but the brothers were already on it. Three got to work on the lock, and within a few minutes, the door was unlocked.

Peter Walter II gave his brother a slap on the back. “Is there anything they don’t teach you in the military?” His brother merely smirked. “They don’t teach you everything. Just the important stuff.”

“Guys,” Hottie stood behind the pair, gesturing towards the door, “we should hurry up and get in there while we still have surprise on our side.”

Three rose to his feet, acknowledging Guy with a nod. “Come on you two, we have a robot to save.” Two led the way, creeping inside the massive mansion, and followed closely by his brother and his son-in-law.

“Pete, there’s the cellar door.”  
Peter Walter II's twin brother rolled his eyes, having already seen the door, “Thanks, Pete,” he whispered in the empty foyer. Three approached and tried the door. A look of surprise washed over his face upon realizing the door was unlocked. Behind him, he heard Guy muttered under his breath, “Guess they thought the front door would be enough.” The brothers simultaneously hushed him and began their descent down the concrete staircase.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_San Diego, California: 1962_

_“I promise I’ll be back soon, before you know it.” The young pilot spoke softly, staring into the eyes of his lover. She appeared incredibly worried for him, and rightfully so, being that this would be the newly appointed commander's first mission in space._

_“Peter…” The woman sighed, playing with the sleeve of her sweater, “You know how I feel about this. You said it yourself, you haven’t completed basic training.”_

_Peter Walter IV chuckled to himself, “It’s alright, Holly. Besides, I wouldn't be on this mission if they didn't think I was qualified to do it. I'll be alright. And look,” Peter pulled out a small heart-shaped locket that hung around his neck and had rested under his shirt, “I have this, so I’ll never forget what you look like.” He smiled reassuringly, but she still didn't seem any less worried than she already was, upon realizing this, Peter sighed and opened up his arms to her, “Come here,” Holly complied and almost ran into his open arms. “Remember what I told you? That I’d hold you.” The two didn’t say a word to each other for some time. Both simply stood held in each other’s arms. He slowly stroked the back of her hair, “Hold you…”_

_“...Until the morning light.” She finished._

“Roger that, Commander Walter, going to make final preparations for systems check.”

The voice coming from Peter's audio receiver snapped him back to reality. That last conversation he had with Holly was a little over a week ago, and despite that, it still looped in his head over and over again. With a shake of his head, Peter replied, “Copy that, mission control. Spacecraft Cosmo, initiating final systems checklist. Over.” He paused, looked over to the crew’s flight engineer, a brilliant technician known by the name of Dwight, and cleared his throat, “APUs?”

“Go.” He responded quickly.

“OMS?”

“Looking good.”

“Fuel Cells?”

“Fuel Cells check.”

“Hydraulics?”

“Hydraulics check.”

“CNS?”

“CNS check.”

“Ecliss?”

“Ecliss check.”

“APU's?” Peter asked once more.

“APU's a go.”

Now for the last one. One he prayed didn’t need to be used. “Abort switch?”

“Abort switch on.” Dwight replied calmly.

Commander Walter nodded. “Control? All systems check. Initializing final launch sequence. Over.”

“Copy that, Commander. Stand by for launch.”  
Peter's mind wandered off again as Control prepared to initiate the countdown sequence. Had he not been in his space suit, Peter would've taken out the small ring he had keep safely in his flight suit. With all the personal excitement surrounding this mission, this was what he felt was the most exciting; going home to Holly, who was, without a doubt, watching the live telecast of the takeoff.

“10… 9… 8…”

_“I’ll come back just as I left. I love you!” Peter hesitantly left Holly at the stairs of Walter Manor and began making his way to the airport shuttle. He and Holly never broke eye contact as he backed to the shuttle and handed his bags to the service men._

“I should've done it last night.” _Peter thought to himself as he twirled the ring around in his pocket. He reasoned that he just would’ve ended up worrying her even more. She didn’t deserve that, not after all they had been through together. He waved to Holly one last time before he got onto the shuttle. Just as he was about to do so, he heard Holly call his name. When Peter turned around, she was already upon him, teary eyed._

_“I'll miss you.” Holly whispered softly against his chest. She was wrapped around him tightly, not willing to let him go._

“7… 6… 5… 4…”

_“I'll miss you too. And I promise you, I will return.” He repeated the last part once more, then looked down to her and she looked to him. Peter's lips met Holly's, and it was only now that Peter realized that she was shaking. In that moment, only briefly did Peter want to turn down the mission. However, he knew it was not possible to do so at this point. Even if he could, Peter also knew that Holly would be disappointed, despite how she already felt. His hands were tied. He had no choice now but to go._

“3… 2… 1… Cosmo, you are go for launch!”

Suddenly, with a flip of a switch, the entire cabin shook violently as the rockets below ignited in a spectacular explosion which slowly propelled the Cosmo upwards into the morning sky. The entire crew of four were pressed into their seats by the inertia acting on their bodies. Second thoughts were plaguing Peter’s mind relentlessly. He regretted ever taking part in this. He regretted ever leaving the safety of the Manor. He wanted to leave this all behind and go home. He tried so desperately to search his mind for something that would calm him down. Suddenly, young Peter thought about what his mother would say to him, were she still around today. He reasoned, since he’d be up in space for a week, that she would get on him about packing enough underwear.

 _“Don't worry mom,”_ he thought to himself, _“I'm packing my own underwear right now.”_ Peter chuckled at his joke, it certainly did help at calming himself down. He knew that he’d have to change once he was up there and everything settled down.

Since they had taken off, the sky had been a bright blue. Now, as the Cosmo passed through the stratosphere, the view outside the rocket became a burning white that was almost too bright to look at. This view continued for another minute, where the harsh white light started to fade out, revealing the black scenery of outer space. The rest of the team worked routinely to eject the now unnecessary parts the rocket, eventually reducing the once grand ship into a small space capsule.

 _“We made it.”_ Peter let out a huge sigh of relief, then thought of Holly. _“See you in a week, darling.”_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1950_

“I think I see it.”

“That's a globe, Guy.”

“No not that. To the right.”

The twins had to step closer to Guy to see where he was looking. They found that he wasn't fooling them. There, in the center of the room, was the blue matter power core that belonged to the automaton, Rabbit. Wires protruded and ran in every direction from the power core. Whatever they were trying to do to it, it definitely didn’t read as safe.  
“Let's nab it and get the hell out of here.” Two said anxiously as he started to move forward, but was stopped by his brother.

“Wait, Pete. We don't know where Becile is. Be cautious. It might be a trap.”

“Alright, stay put and keep an eye out. Me and Guy will try and undo what they’ve done.” He grinned and then added, “Hopefully, nothing will go wrong.”

“Sounds about as half-baked a plan as the one we had just getting here. Be careful.” Three whispered.

“I promise,” Two and Guy went ahead, and Three stood by the foot of the stairs, stuck glancing at both his family and the one door leading out of the cellar.

“What do you think those maniacs are doing to it?” Peter the Second asked his son-in-law as they approaches Rabbit's core.

“From the looks of things,” Guy replied, inspecting the core from a safe distance, “I’d say they were trying to reverse engineer it. For what, I honestly can’t fathom what that’d be.”

Two nodded and looked over his shoulder to his brother, who signaled for him and Guy to hurry up. Peter turned his attention back on the core. “Alright, carefully now. Let's get it and g—"

“Pete!”

Both Peter the second and Guy Hottie snapped around to see Peter the third being held at gunpoint by none other than Ignatius Becile. Next to him was Doctor Norman Becile. Guy froze, but Peter was quick to act, pulling his son-in-law with him, “Get the core!”

The sound of a gunshot was heard, and for a brief moment, Two feared that either his twin or his son-in-law had taken a bullet. That is, until he felt a bullet zoom right past his head. Ignatius had turned the gun on the two going after the core. Norman started to rush after the two, and in the confusion, Three took his chance to distract the gunman. He threw Ignatius’s aim askew before he could get off another shot, and decked him in the face. 

While they fought, the two other men reached the core. Peter picked the core up and scanned it quickly to figure out which wires to pull out without there being an issue. “Peter, hurry!” Guy cried as Norman approached them, climbing over machinery in his attempt to reach them. Peter took in a deep breath and yanked out one of the wires.

Immediately, the entire cellar was engulfed in a searing blue light, followed by an explosion that vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Then, it was suddenly silent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1962_

Commander Walter took out the small locket from under his flight suit. It had been floating around under there long enough for it to bug him, but he also wanted to look at it again. Opening the tiny latch, the locket opened up, releasing a folded note into the air. The paper floated in the zero gravity environment momentarily before Peter grabbed it to open it up. He read the note quietly to himself,

“Fly with me, space man. I love you.” Both Peter and Holly’s names were written on that small note. Beneath where the paper had once say, there lay a photo of the couple from a few years back.

After putting everything back in the locket and snapping it shut, Peter looked to his watch. The Cosmo hadn’t been up in space for very long, they were barely coming up on their fourth orbit around the Earth. Soon, the Commander of the Cosmo would be high above his home, and this time, there wasn’t an overbearing amount of work to be done that would distract him from looking down on the planet.

All of the sudden, Peter heard his radio go off. The voice was indecipherable, but from what he could hear, it sounded urgent. He looked over to Dwight, who was on the other side of the pod. He simply gestured to the radio. Peter floated over to his helmet and put it over his head just as the voice cut out.

“This is Walter. Please repeat.”

The voice came back under an usual amount of static, “Commander Walter, this is mission control. There is an unknown energy source escaping earth's atmosphere. It's heading for you-"

Before any of the crew could react, a violent beam of blue-white energy blasted its way into the ship and collided with Commander Walter, sending the cosmonaut soaring back into the American Flag the crew had pinned on the wall. The cabin of the ship depressurized and a second, far more devastating explosion overtook the ship, further catapulting Walter out of the vicinity of the ship and into the depths of space. Within seconds of Peter’s departure from the ship, the blue-white beam began to consume his body. It spread more and more all around him until he had been completely engulfed by the light. Peter's last thoughts were of Holly and his promise to return before the light made him vanish completely. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1950_

“Pete?”

Three struggled to stand in the midst of all the rubble. He noted that after the explosion, something had knocked Ignatius Becile out cold. As a precaution, Three took the gun from Becile’s unconscious body. He scanned the room, shaking nervously as there were no signs of anybody else in the cellar. His eyes eventually focused on the power core, which glowed dimly on the floor of the lab. Three limped forward towards the power core, calling out for his brother again.

He passed by a piece of rather large machinery when someone, no… something caught his eye. It lied on the floor withered and moaning out in again. It was too horrible for Peter to look at. After retching out the contents of his stomach all over the floor, he suddenly realized that this horrible disfigured monster was a man, or something that used to be a man.

“I hope you suffer, Becile.” Three left the misshapen form that was once Doctor Norman Becile he lied and continued over to the core. As he leaned down to retrieve it, Peter noticed small specks of what appeared to be ashes on the floor. It suddenly occurred to him what had happened to both his twin and his nephew-in-law. To his horror, he realized that the explosion had killed them both. Vaporized them and leaving nothing behind but a small pile of ashes. Peter Walter III dropped to his knees and cried out in agony. He stayed in the same position for what felt like ages, mourning his recently deceased family.

“You promised, god damn it.” Peter choked out in between sobs, “You promised that you would be careful…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah, Commander Walter pooped his pants on the way up. Big heroes have crappy (pun intended) beginnings.


	4. You Told Me...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fate of the Cosmo is released to the public, and one person in particular doesn't take it well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: This chapter takes place in the 1960s. Old pronouns are being used. I do address that Rabbit was feeling dysphoria all the way back then, however at the time, I feel as if she was unable to figure it out. Apologies in advance if it is too uncomfortable to read.

“3… 2… 1… we have liftoff!”

The small television displayed the launch of the Cosmo. The black and white image of the spacecraft was dwarfed by the white glare of the propulsion rockets. The camera began to pan upward, following the rocket for a few minutes as the ship became less and less recognizable. Soon, the television host's voice came on over the speakers,

“Yes, you’ve seen it here folks. The spacecraft, Cosmo, has successfully launched, and will be leaving Earth’s atmosphere shortly. We thank you for your time, and please stay tuned for your regularly scheduled programming.” With that, a variation of America's national anthem took over the speakers as the image transitioned to a simple screen that read, “PLEASE STAND BY.”

The entire Walter family, the heir to the Walter legacy, Peter Walter V, the current caretakers of the manor Wanda Walter and Norman Becile, and the automatons, Rabbit, The Spine, and The Jon, had been crowded around the television to watch the event with Peter Walter IV’s lover, Holly.

“He made it,” Holly whispered softly, letting out a sigh of relief from the sofa. The Spine approached the television and shut it off before the next show could air, muttering to it, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

The fifth man to be named Peter in the Walter family cleared his throat, “One whole week in space. First it’s ten minutes, then a few short orbits around the planet, now they try for a week. Way to shoot for the moon.”

Rabbit folded his arms over his chest, “Lucky Pete. G-g-going up into space. One day, The Spine. I betcha we’ll b-be up there!”

“Doubtful, Rabbit.” The Spine let out a sigh. “What reason would we have to go up there?”

Jon spoke up, taking both Rabbit and The Spine by surprise, “Maybe we’ll be up there for search and rescue? Like in the wars.”

“S-see? Jonny boy has the r-r-right id-d-dea!” Rabbit gave The Jon a slap on the back, resulting in a loud clang, and most likely a dent. “Whoops, sorry Jon.”

“Do try to be careful, Rabbit.” The Spine muttered as he left the room. Peter Walter V sighed and got up off the sofa, “Come on, Jon. Let's get that dent buffed out.”  
Wanda, followed closely by Norman, followed Peter out of the room, “I don't want a young man of your age losing an eye repairing a small dent. I’m going to help you.” With them out of the room, the only two that remained were Rabbit and Holly.

The silence filled the room. For about a minute, neither of the two said a word to one another. Holly was deep in thought over her love, and Rabbit was waiting for Holly to say something, so that he didn’t have to break the silence. Finally, he could stand it no more.

“J-j-j-just think,” as Rabbit spoke, a bit of steam crept out of his mouth, “in a week, he'll be ba-back here and y-y-you two can honeym— I-I mean vacation as far-far-far away from spa-space as possible!” Rabbit's boiler began to work in double time out of fear that he had given away Peter’s secret.

Holly, who hadn’t really been listening, perked her head up, “I'm sorry, Rabbit. Could you please repeat that?”  
“Oh!” He almost let out a sigh of relief, but quickly caught himself. “Nothing. J-just telling yah that P-P-Petey’ll b-be back in a week!”

She smiled at Rabbit, for the past few years that Holly had been with Peter and agreed to move in, Holly and Rabbit had grown exceptionally close to one another. She always found a certain charm in the way he spoke to her. They had shared certain things with one another that had never been said out loud before.

Rabbit was confused. He didn’t know why. Even after he had explained what he felt as best as he could to her, he still didn’t have any closure on the matter. All Holly could conclude from their chats is that the situation sometimes left him feeling absolutely miserable. She really hoped that she could help the poor automaton.

“You’re right, Rabbit. A week. I just really hope he’ll be fine up there.”

“Petey’s a b-br-brainy guy. I'm sure, if any-anything goes wrong up there, he c-c-can handle it!” Rabbit smiled reassuringly at Holly, but his smile faded when he realized that she had started to cry. “Miss Holly? Are y-y-you al-alright?”

“I… I'm just worried about him. It's a full week in space. It’s never been attempted before.” Holly took a moment to collect herself before continuing, “There’s just so much that could go wrong in a week.”

“H-h-hey, I'm sure everything will be fine.” Rabbit let that sentence float out for a few seconds, before realizing it didn't do any good. “H-hey, d-do y-y-you need a h-hug?”  
Without hesitating, Holly stood up and wrapped her arms around Rabbit, who in turn, did the same. For a few minutes the only sounds that were heard were the sounds of Holly's distress, and the faint clickings of Rabbit’s clockwork. Finally, after Holly had let out a soft sigh, Rabbit decided to ask, “Do y-y-you need anything-thing, Miss?"

She pulled away, shaking her head slightly, “No, thank you Rabbit. Not unless you happened to have a time machine that’d bounce me into next week.” She wiped tears from her red face.

“I d-don't th-think I d-do. B-but I c-could probably g-g-get Pete number Five to work on it.”

That managed to crack a smile on Holly's face, “That's a generous offer, Rabbit. But I think my Peter will be back long before that would be finished, if it's even possible to build such a device.”

“The m-m-m-movies makes it look easy! H-how hard c-could it b-be?”  
“You have a point. It's a comforting thought, but a bit unnecessary. Thank you, anyway.”

The two spent the next few hours roaming the grounds of the Manor. Rabbit told stories behind some of the songs the Steam Man Band played to pass the time. The stories he told helped Holly keep her mind off worrying about Peter.

The grandfather clock in the foyer had read 11:45 in the morning when Commander Peter Walter IV had left the Earth’s surface. The time now display about six o'clock that very same evening, when the majority of the Manor were getting ready for supper. Holly had been tidying her and Peter’s room at this time. Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia On My Mind’ played through the radio that was set up in the corner. As she cleaned, Rabbit had returned from a momentary absence.

“Why d-do y-y-you gotta clean th-this place up?” Rabbit asked as he scanned the room, “You kn-know it-it's j-just g-g-gonna get dirty in here the minute P-P-Petey comes home.” Rabbit grinned and winked at Holly, who groaned in response. The song faded out, and the radio began to broadcast the news.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Rodger Kimbley on CBS radio with your six o’clock news.” Holly sighed and walked over to shut off the radio. However, she suddenly stopped when the news anchor started reporting the stories for the evening. “We regret to inform you, the citizens of the free world, that the brave crew of the spacecraft Cosmo were struck by what NASA can only describe to us as, and I quote, an ‘unknown force.’ Nothing regarding the fate of the crew has been released to the public, however we have been told to stand by.”

Holly let out a ragged scream and appeared as if she were about to topple over. Rabbit acted on an impulse and ran to her, catching her just as she started to faint. Rabbit lifted her and set her down on the bed. Holly's face was beat red and wet with tears. Rabbit was holding back his own tears as he knelt beside her and stroked her hair, letting her know that he was there and to let it all out. Because he was the only one in the room, he knew that he needed to be strong for her.

The next few minutes were spent in the positions they were in, Holly lying on the bed, wallowing in tears, while Rabbit knelt at the bedside doing what he could to comfort the poor woman.

“He t-told me…” Holly said between sobs, “He told me he’d… h-hold me.”

Word had spread fast around the Manor that Commander Peter A. Walter IV had suffered a terrible accident while up in space. Pretty soon, the hall outside the seemingly deceased spaceman’s room was crowded with people who wanted to pay their respects. Rabbit wasn’t having any of it, as soon as the crowd outside began to grow, he marched to the doorframe and told everybody out there to give Holly her space.

“The n-nerve of those p-p-people.” Rabbit muttered with a shake of his head. His yelling had broken his concentration on holding back his tears, and a few had managed to slip by his photoreceptors.

It had been a full hour since the news had been broken, and although Holly's crying had ceased, she had not moved an inch in what felt like forever. Rabbit silently went to the bedside facing Holly and sat on the floor. “I d-don’t kn-know if y-y-you want me around. I pro-pro-promise to be quiet. I’ll be here if you need me.”

Rabbit didn't leave the room for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally supposed to be longer, however due to impatience and writer's block, I'm cutting it into two chapters.


	5. I Know I Have a Heart...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The commander of the Cosmo wakes up in an unfamiliar situation. Will his saviors help him home? Or will they lead to more trouble?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few chapters are going to be centered around Peter becoming Cosmo and the heroics he accomplished, up until he crossed paths with the Necrostar.

_“You told me you’d…”_

Those very words flashed through Commander Walter's head as he opened his eyes. “What happened?” Peter looked around at the empty blackness that surrounded him. He recalled the events that had taken place only what felt like seconds ago. He searched his surrounding for anything that looked familiar. The Earth, the Cosmo. Nothing Peter knew to be familiar was in sight. As far as he knew, he was still in outer space. Walter glanced down at his hands and saw that his suit had been torn to shreds. He immediately began to panic. That's when he noticed another thing that caused him to even further his panic:

_He wasn't breathing._

Peter gasped for a breath of air; however, nothing filled his lungs. He continued to try and breathe, but he was reminded by the stars that he was in the vacuum of space. There was nothing he could do. As Peter floated aimlessly in the blackness of space, tears flooded his eyes. He thought of Holly, and how he had broken the promise he made to her. This was the end. Peter shut his eyes and awaited his inevitable suffocation. 

An hour passed.

The passage of time didn’t register in Peter’s head, and he continued to float along.

Another hour went by.

It finally occurred to Peter that for some unknown reason, he no longer required oxygen. He slowly opened his eyes, hoping for a second that he would find himself back home. However, when he did open his eyes, he saw the same quiet scenery he had seen since he initially launched into space. There was nothing Peter could do, without anything to propel himself off of, he was doomed to float aimlessly in the same direction, at the same speed, forever. At least until he died, he reasoned. Although, because of the strange occurrence of him no longer requiring oxygen in space, Peter wondered if any other strange happenings would awaken within him, his biggest concern, being some sort of immortality. If that were the case, he would truly be doomed to float along in depths of space forever.

_“Holly… I'm so sorry…”_

Suddenly, something appeared out of what seemed like nowhere. Whatever it was, it was so massive that it made the Commander feel small and insignificant. If he were to guess, Peter would've said that the large unknown object was some sort of space craft. It didn’t worry him too much, because he understood that he was floating away from the direction of the ship. That is, he was until his velocity changed. Suddenly, Peter was being pulled by an unseen force towards the ship. The Commander struggled to fight against the pull, but quickly found that resisting it proved to be completely futile. Peter craned his neck to look out to the stars he was would’ve floated towards, had it not been for the sudden appearance of this spacecraft. Right now, he would’ve preferred staying on that course than whatever it was that awaited him on this ship. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Booplax!”

“Yer darn right, Booplax. Went inta hyperwarp, an' ended up… let’s see here… way before life existed in these parts!” The man chuckled and smacked his knee, moving away from the monitor he peered at. “Well shoot! The damn thing—“

“Booplax!”

The man rolled his eyes, “Whatever! Darn thing is exhausted! Doesn’t matter! Can’t do jack until it recharges. So!” He approached the short four-armed creature, named Booplax, and sat down on the seat in front of it. “Guess that means us two here gotta do the whole communcatin' thing with one anotha’.”

“Booplax!”

“Uh huh, yep. When we’re lost’n space and time for as long as we've been, I c'n sometimes see men floatin' out there too.”

“Booplax!” He jumped up on his seat and pointed out the ship’s main view window.

The man looked to where his first mate was pointing. He smiled when he saw who Booplax was pointing to. “Well I'll be! What the hell’s an astro— don' interrupt me with yer proper language crap! What's he doing out there? Booplax, get th' tractor beam set up!”  
“Booplax!”

“Don’ argue with me! He's gonna die out there! We're pullin' him in!”

A few minutes later, the ship’s captain ran down to the loading bay greet their passenger. The man's eager face only became more excited as he saw the shredded spacesuit of an American astronaut. “Booplax!” He called excitedly to his first mate, “He's alive, thanks ta me. And lookie! It's a real astronaut from the sixties!”

Peter looked up at his rescuer. Unfortunately, his vision was temporarily clouded from having oxygen being reintroduced into his body after being out for so long, and as a result, he could barely make out the shape of the man. “Where… where am I? Who are you?”

“He speaks Galactic Basic! Thank th' stars! Yer aboard the SS Alexander!” He offered his hand to Peter, who took it and was then hoisted to his feet. “An' I’m th' cap'in! Ravaxis Starburner! But yah can call me Rav!” The man known as Rav stood proudly as he introduced himself.  
“Rav… SS Alexander…” Peter shook his head out of confusion. “Where the hell am I? The future?”

Rav chuckled. “Far from it, bud. Yer actually at the opposite end o' that spec-ter-rum.” He smirked, “Yah gotta name, dude?”

“Walter. Commander Walter.” Peter half expected Rav to salute him, but was slightly taken back when the first response he got back was an eyeroll.

“Nice. Alright, Double-O Seven, I ain’t one fer formalities. So let's stick with first names, Kay?”

He sighed. “It's Peter. Peter A. Walter IV.”

“Watch it, Petes. I said first names, not a whole… wait th' fourth? The hell?” Rav let out a confused chuckled. “Whoever the first guy was either has one hell of an ego, or is super respectable. Imma go with th' first one.”

Peter quickly realized that Rav had not let go of his hand, and he pulled it away. “He was quite a respectable man. An amazing engineer as well, he singlehandedly built three robots to sing and play music.”

Rav looked incredibly excited, “Are yah talkin' ‘bout Steam Pow— Ah mean, I dunno what the heck yer yammering on about.” Rav suddenly glanced over Peter's shoulder and gave him a smirk. “Nice cape, Superman.”

Peter spun around, barely noticing the long tattered cloth that was draped over his shoulders. Upon closer inspection, he hazily saw that the cloth was in fact the American Flag that was hung up on board the Cosmo. He also noticed that his helmet had been smashed, and the shards of glass had cut through the flag and pulled it over his head. Very cape-like.

“C'mon, Petes, I'll introduce yah ta mah buddy, Booplax.” Rav led Peter out of the loading bay. Behind him, Peter struggled with trying to remove the flag from his suit, all the while, trying not to crash into anything due to his limited vision. “So Pete, where yah from anyway?”

“Why do you care? You don't even know me.” With an exasperated sigh, Peter gave up on trying to remove the flag.

“Jus' makin' con-ver-ma-sation. Jeez, can yah blame a guy?” He chuckled and continued to lead Peter up to the ship’s main deck. “Well, here we are!” Peter glanced around the ship’s deck, he was so enthralled by what he saw that he failed to notice a rectangular piece of metal protruding from the ground. He tripped over the metal and fell to the floor.

“Hey! Watch it!” Rav knelt beside the metal and quickly inspected it. “Nice going, Superman. Yer lucky yah didn’t blow us all ta hell!”

Peter got to his feet abruptly. “What are you talking about?”

“It's a bomb drone, dummy. Haven’t yah ever… never mind. And anyway, that there’s the bomb!” Rav pointed to a nearby crate looking object.

“Are you crazy? Why would you have live bombs sitting around on your ship? What are they even for? There's nothing out here!”

Rav simply chuckled, “Well, they don't call me ‘Starburner' fer nuthin'!” He paused, seeing the obvious confusion written on Peter's face. “I'll let yah figure that out on your own.”

Peter shook his head. This man, Ravaxis Starburner, who as far as Peter could guess, dropped bombs in stars, was truly insane. “I want you to take me home, now!”

“Home? Yah mean Earth? Buddy, on this here ship, yah gots ta be a lil' bit more specific.” He walked to the observation window and pointed out to a single object that appeared to be a lifeless rock, and not the beautiful life-rich planet that was Earth. “There's Earth. Only it’s kinda a bit young. No moon yet. No life. No nothin'. Yah wanna go back, I can take yah right now. Yah could be the only life on that thing, until ol’ Theia* comes knockin’! Unless of course yah be more specific.”

Peter squinted his eyes, slowly, they were starting to refocus. He saw the planetoid. Everything he said about it appeared to be true. “You want specifics? 1962. The year’s based on the Gregorian calendar! Don't try pulling some trick on me!”

“Relax, tough guy.”Rav said casually, “I’ll take yah home. Might take a few tries. Going inta hyperwarp blasts us out in random time periods, but with the right calculations, we’ll get there! Maybe.”

“I don't need maybes, I need absolutes!” Peter’s vision became more clear, he spun around to face Rav. Now, he was able to study the man’s appearance much more clearly.

Rav wore a wide brimmed hat, decorated with a pair of goggles, that seemed to take some inspiration from the wild west era, the trench coat he wore looked as if it hadn’t been taken off since it was first put on, a pair of slacks and boots, and a bandolier-looking vest. All seemed completely ordinary about this individual, until Peter focused on the man’s skin, the sight of which, made him freeze. “What the hell? You're… you’re green!”

Rav rolled his eyes again, “Speak for yerself, pinky. Or is kinda more a purpley pinkish color.”

That being said, Peter immediately looked down at his exposed hands, and sure enough, a light pinkish purple aura surrounded his otherwise plain human hands. “What the hell is happen—“

“Booplax!”

“What the hell is that!” Peter nearly jumped backwards upon laying his eyes on Booplax.

“Relax, pinky. That's jus' Booplax. He's just sayin' hi. Oh, an’ reminding yah ta watch your mouth.”

“You mean you can understand that thing?”

“And he can understand you! Now watch it, or you'll hurt his feelings!” Rav shooed Booplax away, and as he did, he called out, “Is the thingy recharged yet?”

“Booplax!”

“Sweet! Well, it's your lucky day, Commander. You might be going home sooner than expected.” Rav walked over to the captain’s chair, and sat in it, propping his feet up on the computer console. “Grab a seat, Petes, an' again, welcome ‘board the SS Alexander.”

Peter approached and empty chair and sat down, being careful to move the flag out of the way before he settled in. His glanced down at his hands once more. The sight of them worried him, and with his newfound ability to be able to survive out in space, he was afraid more physical changes were to come. He thought of Holly again, and what she might think of him, of his appearance. A feeling of dread overcame him that she might be disgusted by what had, and what may, become of him. Already looking as he did, Peter was afraid to face Holly again. His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden noise of the SS Alexander's engines charging up. He glanced over at Rav, who winked back at him.

“Yah can hold mah hand if yer scared.” Rav laughed at the worried look on Peter's face. “Hang tight, buddy. The first time in hyperwarp's the best ride!” With that, the ship blasted off into space at hyperwarp, carrying the lost commander of the recently destroyed spacecraft, the Cosmo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Theia was a planetoid about the size of Mars. It is theorized that Theia collided with Earth sometime during its first billion years as a planet. The result of such, was the formation of our moon and quite possibly life itself on Earth. The more you know!


	6. ...That Burns Like a Million Suns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter Walter IV finally has a chance to return home. However, that will come with a price.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? This fic isn't dead? After a month long hiatus due to illness and school, I'm back to working on this. And boy howdy is this chapter looooong! As of posting this, the entire work had a previous word count of 8004. This chapter adds about half the amount of words to the total. Since this is the first chapter released after the Official Timeline of the Vice Quadrant was posted, please refer to the edit made on the plot summary at the beginning of this fic.

“Commander Walter, come in! We got the Cosmo's distress signal! You were hit by unknown force, an energy with… Earth as its source. What’s your status?”

Up in the earth's orbit, Dwight's eyes opened. He had only caught a fraction of what Ground Control had said. It didn't take him long to remember what happened. Whatever had hit them had collided with Walter and blasted him out of the ship. Now, Dwight found himself out in space, surrounded by the shattered debris of what was once the Cosmo. Upon realizing the severity of the situation, Dwight's breathing quickened. He checked his surroundings for anything that might offer some help. That's when he noticed the holes. His spacesuit was torn in multiple places. From those holes, he saw the oxygen leaking out. He needed help, and fast. Desperately, Dwight switched on his suit's radio and called for help.

“This is flight engineer Dwight, Ground Control do you read? The explosion, it hit Walter! Hit him right in the chest!” He glanced down at the leaking oxygen, knowing his situation was entirely hopeless. “I'm losing air, I'm spinning out high above the Earth. I… I don't think I can hold on much longer.”

For a few minutes, Dwight didn’t hear anything back from them. When they finally did respond, he saw no point in listening or responding. He was beginning to gasp for whatever leftover air was in his suit. This was it. Dwight continued to hear some chatter over the radio. Something about Commander Walter and he even heard his own name; but what did it matter, Dwight knew he was doomed to a slow death in space.

Suddenly, the air in his suit was restored. Dwight's breathing returned to a normal rate. He dared to open his eyes.

Dwight opened his eyes to find himself in the arms of what appeared to be… something. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. The being looked almost human, only it had a more crystalline definition to its features, this was more apparent in the creature’s fur… no, its hair. Focusing back to the thing, he saw that its skin was a mixture of purples, pinks, and blues, with the same color radiating around its whole body. Its eyes were a bright yellow. Dwight focused on the clothing the creature was wearing. It looked identical to his own spacesuit, only in far worse shape. As he continued studying the creature, eventually, his eyes landed on the identification badge sewn into the suit. His eyes widened with surprise and alarm when he read the name that was sewn on the other's suit.

Walter.

It couldn’t be. How could he have survived? The last Dwight had seen of the Commander, he was vanishing into the depths of space after being blasted through the Cosmo’s walls. There was no way that this being could be the Commander. But for Dwight, there was only one way to find out.

“C-commander?” Dwight managed to choke out. Much to the flight engineer's surprise, the being nodded, confirming Dwight's suspicions to be true. There was so much Dwight wanted to ask, but all he managed to say was a simple, “How?”

The Commander looked away and simply stated “I… I don't know. I can't explain it.” It was only now that Dwight realized that they were falling… no, they were flying. Commander Walter was carrying Dwight and was flying down through the atmosphere. Strangely enough, they were not burning up in it. Something was protecting them from the layers of Earth’s atmosphere, and Dwight believed fully that the Commander was responsible for. It became clear to Dwight that the Commander, through some previously unknown powers, was saving his life. Questions revolving around why he was being saved ran through his head over and over again. He wondered why Walter was saving him and why not the other two. As if he had read his mind, the Commander answered Dwight's mental question, “The others… I couldn't save them.”

The two were about to touch down on the surface of Earth. Neither Dwight nor the Commander said a word to each other after Walter admitted to his failure. Dwight could see it in the other's glowing yellow eyes. The pain of knowing he couldn't save them hurt the Commander in a way Dwight knew he could never truly understand. He was grateful that he was being saved, however he couldn't quite find the means to express it. Dwight didn't know whether to cry, cheer, or simply thank the Commander. In the end, he chose silence. It seemed to him, like the best of all the choices.

When they finally did touch back down on Earth, there were camera crews from the News Stations and press set up waiting for them. If Walter had been paying attention, he would've opted to set Dwight down anywhere else but at the NASA headquarters. Immediately, both him and Dwight were bombarded by question after question. From the sounds of things, they didn't know who or what the Commander was. Wherever they asked the flight engineer a question, the journalists would refer to Commander Walter as an ‘it.’

Horror soon swept over Walter as he realized that he was being recorded for live broadcasted news. It occurred to him that the one person that mattered most to him would be watching, and that she would see him… like this. He knew it was time for him to go. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that Holly was watching and that she had seen him, and was completely horrified by what she saw. It was in that moment that the Commander decided rashly to flee back into the very the place he came from. Flee back into outer space. Using the same unknown powers that had lowered him and Dwight down to Earth, Walter reversed that and used the same power to rocket himself upward without any explanation to the press that continued to peg him with questions even as he began to fly away.

“I'm sorry, Holly….” The Commander thought to himself and as flew into space, heading towards Starburner's ship, “Sorry you had to see me like this. I wish I could find a way to fix it. If I could, then I'd come back and hold you, like I promised.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Much, much earlier_

 

“C'mon, Peter! One more an' we eat fer free in this joint!”  
“God, these are revolting. Why couldn't it have been something normal, like a hot dog eating contest or something?” Peter grumbled before starting on the last dish… it could hardly be called a dish. He was eating a type of circular bread bowl with a center filling that was a mixture of whatever leftover ingredients the cooks in the kitchen could dump into it. For whatever reason, they called it a ‘moon.’ Eating them proved to be a struggle; not because Peter felt he was getting full, but because they tasted so horrible.

It took Peter more strength than expected to scarf down the last of the moon. They had been traveling for an incredibly long time. So long that Peter had lost track of time after the first year. Not once had they had any success in reaching Peter's time period. Every so often, like now, they would have to stop to refuel or eat. In this time, Peter had seen worlds he would never had dreamed of seeing, species of alien races from a thousand worlds that could not have been thought to exist, things the human mind could never truly be able to comprehend.

During their travels, the physical changes Peter had undergone had started to become more prominent. The pink and purple tint on Peter’s skin had not faded, but had instead seemed to grow darker, and he could swear that his skin was hardening, something that greatly worried Peter; however, in the hundreds of bars and diners they had travelled to, his appearance didn’t seem to phase any of the people there. When he swallowed the last bit of food, Rav let out a celebratory cheer.

“That’s thirty! He broke th' record!” Rav yelled to the cooks in the kitchen. “We eat fer free! C’mon, buddy!” He slapped Peter on the back, “Order as much as yah can, n' remind me ta get stuff fer Booplax!”

“Booplax!”

“Ne'er mind, sorry bud. Forgot yah came in!” Excitement was written all over Rav's face. “Git whate'er ya want, Booplax! It's all free now!”

 

A few hours later, the three of them, Ravaxis, Peter, and Booplax, exited the diner and headed back to the ship. Both Rav and Booplax appeared heavily drained from the food they had eaten. Peter on the other hand, looked like the most energized of the trio, despite being the one that had eaten the most. Rav had pointed that out to Peter, who in turn said, “You're pretty mistaken, I don't think I could eat one more of those moon things.” Peter looked ahead in disgust.

“Yer kiddin' yerself, dude. Ya look like ya could eat maybe thirty-five more of those things!” Rav chuckled and continued onward. Peter glanced down at his ragged spacesuit, and it had occurred to him just how long it had been since he had worn anything different. Rav In the time Peter had travelled with Rav and Booplax, he had learned quite a bit about the two. Rav had never outright stated, but he had figured out that the man had an attraction to other men, although that attraction was not specifically limited to human men. Peter flattered himself on numerous occasions by wondering whether or not Rav had an attraction to him. He also learned that Starburner’s livelihood was in fact, blowing up stars. He wasn't a loose cannon, going around destroying stars at random; in reality, he was hired as a mercenary. As far as Rav knew, he was the only one in the business of doing so. Peter saw that he obviously took pride in that fact. Booplax was a bit harder to figure out. Peter had no idea where he came from, and when asking Rav, his only response was a soft chuckle and a quick, “Well, he's Booplax!” He figured that was as far as he could get on trying to understand what Starburner's short four-armed companion exactly was. In all their travels, Peter had never seen another creature that resembled Booplax, often he wondered if he was a one-of-a-kind creature. Peter still couldn't figure out how the different frequencies of saying ‘Booplax’ translated into words, but he could at the very least, tell that the short creature had grown a little fond of him. It was a comforting fact for Peter that despite his outlandish appearance, there were still those that saw him for the man he was. Still, his biggest concern was wondering what Holly would think of him if and when he returned home. It was an unknown Peter wanted to be known, but at the same time, he wanted to keep the truth of it in the dark.

Peter and Rav shared a room onboard the ship. Peter wanted to decline the invitation initially, but Rav had insisted. They bunked in separate beds, the one Peter slept in was a smaller cot brought in from one of the spare bunk rooms on the ship, while Rav slept in a grand king size bed that made Rav seem like he was expecting it to be occupied by a few others. The last thing Peter wanted to do was be in the room when the bed was full, so Peter was hopeful to find his first chance to move out to the other spare bunks.

After the three had boarded the ship, Rav flew the ship out to orbit the planet the diner was located on to rest safely until the hyperwarp drive had fully recharged. Peter had went ahead and retired to his cot while the ship was flown into orbit. If he were to guess, Peter would say that he hadn’t slept in over a month. He wasn't necessarily tired, he rarely was these days, but he felt that if he tried, he could eventually drift off to sleep. This proved harder than it seemed, as Peter found himself tossing and turning in his cot for what felt like hours. He fluffed the pillow, changed which end of the cot he was sleeping on, but nothing he did helped him fall closer to sleep.

It occurred to him sometime later that it was his cot that was incredibly uncomfortable, and was likely the source of why Peter couldn't get any sleep. He sat up and looked to Rav's unoccupied bed. Sure, the sheets themselves were likely unsanitary, but Peter was desperate to try and get some rest, and the bed was looking cozier with each passing moment. Finally, he could deal with it no longer. Peter dragged his stuff over to Rav's bed and plopped down on it. Already, he noticed there was a immediate difference between this bed and his cot. It was much more relaxing, and was able to aid Peter in drifting off to sleep.

Peter woke up sometime later to harsh shoving and a lot of talking. He didn't need his eyes to figure out who was shaking him, he already knew it was the owner of the bed.  
“Listen Pinky, if I wanted yah in mah bed, I woulda made sure I had plenty'a wine. Now up.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. Without a word of objection, Peter grabbed his stuff and climbed out of the bed. Before he got anywhere, Rav stopped him. “I’d rather ya use one of the spare rooms if yer gonna glow all bright and look all rocky like that.” Peter was clearly at a loss before realizing that Rav was referring to his skin, which he now saw had a distinct pink glow to it, and also had a crystalline texture to it. Again, it appeared that the changes were going to continue much longer than expected. He was almost afraid to see how much his face had changed, and once the thought had implanted itself, curiosity began to overtake the Commander’s mind.  
Soon after exiting Rav's bedroom, Peter hauled his belongings to the spare bunk room and quickly dumped them on the floor. Dashing to the small mirror in the washroom, Peter was immediately taken back by the drastic changes that were made on his face. Everything about it, the structure, the details, the eyes and hair, had become more defined and exaggerated. This was due to his skin gaining a more crystalline-like texture. It even felt almost like touching a rock, but at the same time, it felt organic. The same could be said for his hair, which looked about as solid as it was. His hairstyle looked to be permanently shaped on his head. His own eyes scared Peter. The luminescent yellow glow of the two were difficult for him to stare into. Not due to them glowing bright, almost like mini stars, but because it was uncomfortable for Peter. All the changes he had been through didn't sit well with him. Every second of every day, night, or whatever it was onboard the S.S. Alexander, Peter worried about what Holly would think of him when she saw just how much he had mutated. No thought surrounding that was a soothing one. Each one was a slippery slope that ultimately ended up with Holly rejecting the hellish monster he so thought he had become.

The more he thought about this, the angrier and the more irrational he became, and the more he wanted to reject his thoughts and prevent them from becoming reality. He couldn't help but think of going home to her. He thought that maybe she had since moved on.

His fists clenched. 

He thought of Holly gasping in horror at the mere sight of his mutated form. 

His upper lip twitched.

He thought of Holly then laughing at his desperate attempt to propose to her. “You think I want to marry you? I loved Peter, not this… freak!”

His yellow eyes blinked back tears.

He thought of Holly leaving him for another man, a normal man.

His composure broke, and with a yell, Peter pounded his fist into the mirror, smashing it to pieces and leaving a considerable dent in the wall behind it. He let the tears of man believing he had just lost everything he had ever cared about for. Even his tears had changed into small sprinkles of starlight. He covered his face with his hands and sunk down to the floor. The Commander was not silent in his sorrows. He didn't care if either Rav or Booplax heard him. He didn't care if they got mad that he broke the mirror or the wall. He didn’t care if he was made fun of. All he wanted to do was see Holly again. The thought of doing so terrified him, and although he still had the locket, he couldn't bring himself to open it. Seeing her face would only make him think about what she would say about him now. And seeing his face, his old face, would hurt him more than the unknown force that had started this whole mess to begin with.

Peter continued pitying himself for quite some time, he wanted to deny all this from happening and go home. Right then, as if on cue, an image of himself… flying? Yes, Peter concluded that he was flying not falling, over earth and cradling something in his arms, flashed through his head. Peter had noted that he saw he was wearing his tattered spacesuit in his vision. The only conclusion he was able to draw from that was that he had seen some sort of glimpse into the future. He scrambled to his feet as fast as he could and stumbled out of his new room, looking everywhere for Ravaxis.

 

“Hold up now, e'rything yer sayin' makes absolutely zero sense.”

Peter sighed and shook his head. “You need to trust me, Ravaxis. Just one more go! I’m sure the hyperwarp drive can take it.”

“I know we’re tryin' ta get back to your time period every chance we got, but this just sounds nuts.” Rav let out his own sigh and rubbed the back of his green neck. “I ain't saying no, let’s not try. I’m jus' saying it's downright nuts, claiming that yer answers came to ya in a magic picture in yer head.” Rav crossed his arms and walked from Peter to the control console. After a moment spent inputting coordinates, the two shared a look when the hyperwarp engines began to warm up.

“Ya ready ta go home, Superman?” Rav asked in a half-joking manner. Peter took a deep breath in and nodded, bracing himself as the ship blasted away into hyperwarp.  
Only minutes later, the ship came out of hyperwarp directly next to the Earth’s moon. Peter gazed around anxiously at the blue planet. “Are we back? Are we in the right century?”

“Relax, Petes. I'm getting’ the results from th' computer.” Rav wheeled over in his chair to the computer, and Peter followed. A few seconds later, Peter heard the man chuckle to himself. “Well I’ll be. Yer day dreaming got us to the right place after all. Lookie here.” He tapped on the monitor. “As of now, there’s two of ya in this here time period.”

“What’s the year?”

“Let me finish. From what ya told me, in a few minutes, yer ol' spacecraft's gonna go up in smoke, and yer gonna be blasted into the past! And then, I'm gonna find ya out there.” Rav grinned smugly, ignoring Booplax’s protests that he had actually found Peter.

“A few minutes?” Peter scrambled to his feet. “I gotta go now!” He ran for the airlock and was stopped by Rav grabbing his arm.

“Wait jus' a darn minute! What the hell's going on?”

“Let go of my arm!” He tugged his arm away from Rav and opened the airlock chamber. “I’ve got to stop this from happening. One way or another, I've got to stop myself from becoming like this!” Rav didn’t protest Peter any further.

“I'll keep the ship near. Whatever happens, good luck out there.” He shut the airlock chamber and stepped back from the door. Peter nodded and took a deep breath, then the airlock opened, sucking Peter out into outer space.  
Peter tumbled about for a few seconds before an inexplicable force overtook him, and he was now able to control his velocity in space, as if he were flying. He propelled himself toward the Earth at the speeds that nearly matched that of light. He had to hurry. At any second, the beam that had struck him so long ago would hit his past self, and he would be doomed to turn out as he had now. If he could intercept the beam, then he would be able to save himself from such a horrible fate. He just hoped he wasn’t too late.

Peter finally got close enough to the Earth to see the Cosmo… at least whatever was left of it. The beam that had torn through the spaceship had caused it to be completely ripped apart. He knew that he was too late.  
Suddenly, the unthinkable happened. Through his old headset, Peter began to pick up radio signals from Ground Control. He wasn’t able to decipher what exactly was being said, but he picked up that at least one of his crew, Dwight, he later heard, had survived and was floating out in space with little air left in his suit. Reaching to his headset, Peter tested the microphone, finding himself surprised to see that it still worked. As he continued approaching the wreckage of the Cosmo, he flipped his radio back on and spoke into the microphone.  
“Ground Control, this is Walter.” He paused for a moment, waiting for some sort of response, which he didn’t get. “I’m bringing Dwight back home.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I knew it! I knew it!” Rav cheered and threw his hat into the air. “Mah best friend’s a superhero! Mah best friend’s a superhero!” He chuckled and then saw the look on Peter’s face. “What's th' matter with you?”

Peter sighed, “They had cameras there. Holly… I’m pretty sure it was everywhere. She’s bound to see my face somewhere.” He buried his face in his hands. “I shouldn't have saved him. I should've came right back here after I realized I was too late.”

“Ah that's a load of crap and ya know it. Ya did th' right thing by saving him.” Rav shook his head. “Y’know, never once did I think I'd ever be tellin' anyone about doing what’s right. And hey, this is jus' a thought, but if yer gonna be a superhero, yer gonna need a superhero name.”  
“You can't be serious right now.”

“I'm dead serious! C'mon, ya gotta do it! If yer real name’s found out, all the bad guys'll be comin' after your girl. Yah gotta protect her that way. Like Superman, ‘cept yah'd probably get sued, so I wouldn't call yerself that.”  
Peter rolled his eyes. However, because he lacked any visible irises or pupils, it didn't come across to other as such. “Fine. You make somewhat of a point. What’d you have in mind?”

A grin spread across Rav’s green face. “Ooh I can think of a couple right off the bat! Whaddaya think of Sergeant Star?”

Peter raised a brow, “Are you kidding? No.”

“Alright, alright. What about ah… General Galaxy?”

Peter shook his head.

“Mister Meteor?”

He scoffed in response.

Rav snapped his fingers. “Captain Comet!”

“No.”

“You're real picky, ya know that? Let's see… ah Professor Planet?”

“Rav, I don't think—“

“Sir Soliton!”

“Okay, okay! Hang on just a minute.” Peter chuckled softly when it suddenly hit him on what this name for his secret identity would be. “How about… Commander Cosmo?” Peter nodded, satisfied with his decision. “Yeah, it has a nice ring to it.”

“Commander Cosmo, huh?” Rav looked almost disapproving, but didn’t say anything about it. “Well then! I guess that makes me yer witty sidekick with the cool spaceship.”

“I guess that does.” Peter folded his arms over his chest and looked out the ship's window and to the Earth.  
Rav walked up next to him and dusted off Walter's shoulder. “Yah should probably get a better uniform fer the job. But don’t worry about it, I know a few people that c'n make some pretty sweet armor.

“Do whatever. This… this could help ease who I am to Holly. Maybe she'll come to accept the changes after she sees what I can do?”

“Relax Petes. For all we know, she still thinks yer dead.”  
He sighed and nodded reluctantly, “You're probably right, Ravaxis. I may be overreacting. I don’t know what she knows, but I really hope that it's nothing.” Peter thanked Rav once again for his help and turned to head back to his room. It had been an eventful day, and he very much needed some rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_A few weeks later_

 

Back on Earth, things had begun to wind down in Walter Manor after learning of the apparent passing of Peter Walter IV. Things were much quieter around the enormous mansion, especially in young Holly’s room. She had taken a lot more time off for herself, and had been taken care of by Rabbit during this time. She required the automaton's assistance less and less as each day went by. Holly was well enough to wander about the Manor again. However, this was something she rarely did, as reminders of her Peter were everywhere. The only reason she was up and out of her room now was because she was desperate for reading material. The only object Holly could think had some untouched source of literate information was the weekly newspaper. She knew that The Spine usually read them, but she didn’t think that he would mind if he missed one week’s paper.

Holly found the paper in the dining room, as expected, and snatched it up without taking a look at any of the articles it had to offer. She quickly headed back to her room so that she could get to reading it. While on the way back, she had already began to read the paper, and when she read the headlines, she stopped right outside her door.

**“Space Angel Rescues Lone Surviving Astronaut from Certain Doom.”**

Below that was a picture of the astronaut mentioned above being placed on his feet by the help of another in a tattered spacesuit. The name badge on the second astronaut was being covered by the first astronaut. Holly peered closely at the image. She could've sworn the being looked so familiar, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it. After a moment of staring at the being’s face, she decided to check what the article had to say. 

From what she skimmed through, the journalists had referred to the being as an ‘it’ and went into great lengths to describe the appearance of the being. She found that their primary focus was the pinks, purples, and blues of the being’s skin, and not what it was wearing. Sighing, Holly folded up the newspaper and entered her room. Right as she did so, everything clicked. Frantically, she flung open the paper and stared at the headline and the photo again. She went to the end of the article and saw that the man was in fact the “lone survivor of the Cosmo incident.” Holly gasped suddenly and dropped the paper to the ground. She felt very faint again. She knew exactly who the mysterious “space angel” was:

It was Peter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank the lovely people that run the "spg-snaps" blog on tumblr. They were generous enough to allow me to use a joke they created in this chapter.I really appreciate their generosity and I can't thank them enough for it! http://spg-snaps.tumblr.com


	7. Commander Cosmo, Save Us!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into the achievements of the cosmic defender of Earth.

_Winter, 1963:_

 

The great city of London. For the most part, the day had started out fairly normal for the citizens. Traffic, crowded train stations, and an overall noisy, bustling city. Not one person could've guessed the mayhem that would soon befall the entire city.

The event began at about noon, right above the Palace of Westminster. Nobody could believe it when they saw it. In the aftermath of its appearance, everybody knew the world would not be the same. For safety measures, the building was evacuated, however, nobody could truly determine whether or not it was a threat. Whatever it was, it was hovering silently over the building. It was a massive disk-like hunk of metal, and it appeared to be rotating. The disk remained stationary over the Palace of Westminster for a little over an hour, and in that time, it attracted a large crowd that gathered around the now empty Parliament building. Over the chatter that had erupted over the crowd, few dared to call the object a flying saucer. The British military had taken an interest in the floating disk, being told to wait for whatever the disk was to make the first move. And that is exactly what it did.

A small hatch opened up on the underbelly of the disk. Nobody could tell what was going to come out of the hatch, and for those few minutes, the whole city seemed to sit silently in anticipation. There was a loud humming heard from the disk, followed by a deafening bang, and the Parliament building was destroyed in an instant, melted down until it was a pile of molten rubble. Immediately, the entire crowd dispersed. They fled in every which direction while the British military retaliated against the disk.

After a momentary ceasefire, it was apparent that their military might had proven to be completely ineffective. The saucer still remained airborne, and it didn't appear to have sustained any damage whatsoever. Finally, the disk moved. It began to descend and was now hovering just above the ground. People everywhere fled for their lives as the flying saucer’s bottom hatch opened once more. From what witnesses could later recall, the saucer began to seemingly vacuum up all the military vehicles and civilian automobiles, as if it were eating them. Nobody knew what would become of them if they were sucked into the mysterious hatch, and in the aftermath, it was found that thankfully nobody did.

The havoc caused by the flying saucer went on for another hour. The British Royal Navy was constantly bombarding the ship, until they either had to retreat to refuel and reload their ammunition, or were sucked into a newly opened top hatch, to which the pilots ejected from their planes to avoid a seemingly gruesome death.  
Suddenly, in all the chaos, a second loud bang was heard, one that years later was confirmed to be a sonic boom. Following the bang was a bright purple streak of light that came from the sky, and was aiming itself at the flying saucer. In seconds after the light’s appearance, it collided with the ship, causing it to be knocked off its original course.

“Rav, it’s still in the air.”

“Ah know, ah know! What’d ya expect? Fancy Martian spacecrafts ain't fragile kittens!”

The two communicated over long distances earpieces Rav had purchased from another planet. One was down on Earth, the other was up in space stationed on the S.S. Alexander. Cosmo now donned a new set of armor that was clearly not of Earth, however, on his chest, a symbol that resembled the very much Earth native letter ‘C’ was embroidered into the armor (all of which also provided by Rav through an unknown contact). He smashed away at the Martian spacecraft. Each blow proved to be completely ineffective.

“Commander, take it easy! That armor’s too tough, yer gonna give yerself a hairline fracture er something!” Rav pinched his brow and shook his head in frustration. “Booplax! Where're those readouts?”

“Booplax!”

“I asked for them like yesterday! Bring ‘em!” Rav was interrupted by a crumpled up ball of paper being thrown in his face. “What the hell, Booplax? I need the— oh, that is the readouts. Thanks buddy!” Rav folded out the papers and read through them quickly.

Cosmo was still beating away at the ship, each hit proving useless against the powerful armor. “Hey Commander.“ Rav came in over the comms. Cosmo gave the ship another punch before responding, “You have those technical readouts?”

“Uhh… yeah! Jus’ one question! What’s a thermo… electric generator?”

“It's a generator powered by heat. Why, is that what it runs on?”

Rav looked over the readouts and scratched his head. “Kinda? Booplax is sayin' it's a form of one. But he's saying it don't work like a ‘frigerator. Just heat on both sides.”

With this in mind, he tried to budge the ship. Numerous times he attempted this, and each time proved as unsuccessful as the last. Seeing his attempts to move the ship by force to be futile, Cosmo took off into the sky above. “Ravaxis, how're the clouds looking above London?”

“Why, ya gotta plan?” Rav quickly rolled his chair over to his computer after receiving a smart ass response from Cosmo, there, he started to pull up the latest on the weather. “Looks like they’re ripe fer a good snowfall. It's damn cold enough fer it to last. Hell, with the right stuff added, it could be one heck of a blizzard.”

“That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say.” Cosmo found himself up in the clouds. He felt the harsh bite the freezing temperatures had on his cosmic skin, however he was not bothered by the drastic change in temperature. The Commander began to gather the clouds together. The sound of thunder was heard, a few flashes of lightning sparking out at random. None of it phased Cosmo. He didn't worry. He wasn't afraid. After another few minutes of this, Cosmo began to see the results of his work. Snow began to fall to the Earth at an accelerated rate. Satisfied with his work, Cosmo shot back down to Earth back to the flying saucer, which was still wrecking havoc as the first snowflakes began to touch the ground. All Cosmo had to do now was buy time. He had to slow it down, make sure it didn’t cause much more destruction.

Cosmo’s solution was to fly off hundreds of miles in the direction of the saucer was going. He soon stopped, turned around, and blasted forward to the ship. By his count, it took Cosmo approximately 1.5 seconds to collide with the ship. Doing so caused the Martian saucer and himself to be at a standstill. He pushed against the ship with all his might, and the ship pushed back. Neither Cosmo nor the ship could overpower the other. This standstill lasted an extended amount of time, soon drawing back a crowd of people similar to the ones that had witnessed the destruction of Parliament.

As the snowfall became more and more frequent, it became clear that neither the ship nor Cosmo was going to give up. He could tell there was a significant drop in the temperature. Cosmo knew that the colder it got, the closer he came to succeeding. He could hear the internal engines of the spacecraft begin to falter. It was only a matter of time.

Another fifteen minutes passed, and the effects of the cold on the ship became apparent. One of the engines died, and just like that, the saucer collapsed to the ground. Relieved, Cosmo let out a sigh and touched down on to the ground. Around him, the crowd erupted in a confused, yet thankful applause. Looking to his left, Cosmo saw a group of news reporters making their way to him.

“Time to make my exit.” Swiftly, Cosmo took flight and had Rav make a quick scan of the spacecraft. From his readings, whatever life form that was piloting the ship had died from exposure to the cold after the thermoelectric engines failed. He flew back into space, satisfied with his work. Although he did regret leaving the spacecraft behind, his gut feeling was that it would be in good hands. And he soon found out, that his efforts to stop the craft had some unexpected repercussions. The snow storm he had caused had worsened, and ended up lasting until March of that same year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1964_

 

Cosmo stood on the surface of Earth, arms crossed as he watched in satisfaction as the alien beings (which closely resembled scientific depictions of pterodactyls) rained down to the ground in balls of fire. They came down from space and attacked commercial airliners and terrorized several small cities in the Midwest of the United States. To his knowledge, he had been able to eliminate the creatures without them causing any physical harm to the citizens.

The Commander remember the second he had reached them, there had suddenly been a small throbbing sensation in his head. Much like a headache, but at the same time, very different. The Commander recalled the events that followed.

 

He had kept his distance from the swarm of, what the local press were calling “space pterodactyls,” while he tried to figure out what was happening to him. Cosmo closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. As he was occupied, he didn't see that one of the flying creatures had noticed him, and was charging him. Although he couldn’t see, his instinct sensed the oncoming danger.  
Suddenly, the throbbing in his head transformed into a tremendous pain. Cosmo was now worried, as he hadn’t experienced physical pain in years. His hands shot up to his head to apply pressure to his temples. If anything, it barely helped him at all. Cosmo felt the pain growing as he accidentally slipped down from the sky. Even through the falling and the pain, Cosmo felt some sort build up occurring behind his eyes. Before he could think about it any further, he suddenly felt himself snatched out of the air by one of the creatures. 

Panicking, Cosmo reached out and grabbed the space creature’s legs that were carrying him and opened his eyes to assess the situation. When he did so, a blinding flash of yellow beams erupted from his eye sockets, blasting the pterodactyl, and vaporizing most of it before the animal could even screech. Cosmo gasped loudly, and the beams immediately stopped, as did the pain in his head. He slowed himself to a halt after realizing that he was falling again.

“Another new power.” Cosmo muttered to himself, turning his gaze up to the swarm of space pterodactyls above. “Time to make the most of it.”

Cosmo focused as best he could on achieving that very same buildup of energy in his head. The pain returned, but it was far more tame than the initial unveiling of this power. He allowed the energy to build up as much as he could take it, he wanted to take out the entire swarm in one go. Cosmo’s lip quivered. Not yet. He stopped at around the same distance he had been before. Now it was started to affect his concentration. Cosmo cupped his hands around his mouth and called out to the swarm. Much to his surprise, the creatures took the bait, and the entirety of the swarm began to fly towards him. The Commander waited a few more seconds, until he was sure he was about to pop an area of whatever it was that took the place of his veins, then opened his eyes, unleashing a powerful ray of pure sun beam energy upon the swarm of extraterrestrial beings.

Afterwards, the pain from unleashing his new power on the creatures had subsided. Cosmo noted that he would likely be guilt tripped into showing Rav later, the next time he returned from deep space. He had no idea when that would be, but it wasn’t of great concern to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1967_

 

“Dad! Dad! It’s him! It's really him!”

The young boy pointed at the cosmic space being, Commander Cosmo. Excitement was written all over the boy’s face. He tugged his father along to the hero. His father beamed down at his son, both had seemed to have forgotten that only minutes ago, they and their city were in considerable danger against an aquatic menace that had come from the skies above rather than the seas.

Cosmo scanned the sky, making sure that there wasn’t anymore of the creatures that had attacked when he suddenly felt somebody lightly pull his arm. He turned, and much to his surprise, saw the man and his son standing behind him.

The boy looked up at him. He was clearly nervous to be next to the Commander. After a moment of stammering and trying to formulate a coherent sentence, the boy said shyly to the Commander, “M-Mister Cosmo, you're the best!” He introduced himself, then continued, “I bought your t-shirt a-and your lunchbox— the one with the sweet hologram.”

The father stepped forward and handed the boy a baseball bat which was slightly coated with the dried blood of the creatures. When he received the bat, the boy tried to rub off the blood with his shirt before giving up and offering it to the Commander. “If you could sign my baseball bat, gosh, that would swell!”

Cosmo took a moment to process what just happened. He wasn’t aware that he merchandise, or fans to begin with. He took the bat from the boy and looked to the father, “Do you uh… do you have a pen?” The boys eyes widened with excitement when he heard him speak. The father searched his pockets for something to write with. He soon pulled a pen from his pocket. Convenient.  
Cosmo wasn’t sure what to say to the boy, but finally found some words after a moment’s consideration, “Well uh… how old are you?”

The boy smiled and answered back, “Four! I'm turning five in July!”

Uncapping the pen, Cosmo fought to position the bat in a way that he could sign it properly. “And… what do you want to be when you grow up?” He began to sign his name, writing on the bat in blocky letters ‘COMMANDER COSMO.’

“I want to be an astronaut!”

Cosmo stopped writing and looked up from it. His mind flashed back to the accident that had turned him into what he was now all those years ago. Hiding his discomfort with the boy’s career choice, he simply smiled and finished his signature and handed it back to him. “Hopefully it goes better for you than it did me.” The boy didn't seem to be bothered by what he said, as he was lost in amazement over the signature. “So… stay in school and don't do drugs and… stuff.” Cosmo awkwardly ruffled the boys hair before taking a step back to fly off. Before he left, the father stopped him.  
“Excuse me. Mister Cosmo, sir. There's… a bit of a problem happening south from here.” Cosmo looked at him questionably. “You see, there's these creatures causing a problem. Terrible little spider demons. Well, they aren't very little. Anyway I wondering, if you had some extra time, could you see to it that those spider demons are sent back to hell?”

Cosmo nodded once. “I'll look into it. Don't worry, they'll be taken care of.” With that, the Commander took off into the skies, leaving a light trail of starlight and stardust behind him. The boy look on in amazement as his hero disappeared into the afternoon sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1970_

 

After some time of Rav being away, Cosmo stood onboard the S.S. Alexander for the first time since the mid 60s. “You know Rav, you look much younger since I last saw you.”

Rav spun around in his swivel chair, “Uh… when’s the last time I saw ya?”

Cosmo thought long and hard, lately he'd been losing his grasp on the concept of time, something that he couldn't quite explain why. “I… I believe it was right after the incident with the pterodactyl beings, or before the second flying saucer appearance. I’m not quite sure.”  
Rav squinted, “No, I dunno anything about no peh-terror-dactyl aliens er spaceships.” His eyes lit up, “Y'know, I jus’ noticed yer fancy space armor. Looks like it came out alright!”

The Commander looked at Rav, obviously dumbstruck. “I'm confused, you’re the one who gave me the armor after it was finished.” Rav let out a chuckle. “Yeah, me from the future probably did. Hyperwarp, remember? Last time I actually saw ya was like last week. And I picked up a few things from the year I was in.” Rav left the room to go retrieve whatever he got. Cosmo followed him to continue the conversation.

“Rav, were you aware that I had a following?” Cosmo asked, suddenly remembering his run in with the young boy some time ago.

“Are ya like a mind reader er somethin’? That's was what I was gonna show ya!” He continued into his room, pulling a box out from his closet. “Brace yerself, Commander.” Rav opened the box and pulled out a stack of paper and handed it to Cosmo. He looked over the paper stack, studying the image of the cosmic superhero presented in an action pose shown on the cover, the title, reading “The Adventures of Commander Cosmo” written in big purple letters with the edges highlighted in white. In the corner, it read “Issue #1.” It occurred to him that he was holding a comic book, and he was somehow the main character.

“I… I don’t understand.” Cosmo flipped through the comic book, stopping on a random page and looking up at Rav, “Comet Crystalline Ether Form?”

“I figured that wasn't anything ya had. The guys that made it took a lotta liberties in making this.” Cosmo nodded and handed the comic back to a dorkly grinning Rav. “How did all of this start?”

“Well, I kinda maybe a little bit had released yer name ta the public. Anonymously, o'course. That was like a month ago, fer me anyway. Ah think it was like 1965 er something.” Rav put the comic back into the box. “Spoiler alert: yer comic only lasts about five issues. Dummies at Action Comics sued the creators fer copying Superman.”

Cosmo was torn between anger and utter confusion over the revelation of what Rav had done. “Rav, I don't think any of this was necces—“

“Ooh one more thing!” Rav dove back to the box and pulled out a t-shirt. “I thought ya might like this one, I had one helluva laugh with it!” He handed the folded shirt to the Commander, who took it with a raised brow. “What is it?”

“Unfold it an’ find out!” Rav grinned in anticipation.  
Cosmo did so, frowning when he read the shirt. 

Obviously, his expression was what Rav was expecting as he burst into laughter. The Commander shook his head and threw the shirt back in the box. “Commander Cosmos.” He sighed heavily at the misspelling of his name.

“I knew yah'd like it! An' there’s plenty more where that came from! I jus’ ne'er got mah hands on ‘em!” Rav pushed the box back into the closet.

“Well, how about you take that box and…” Cosmo stopped and turned towards the Earth. He couldn't tell exactly what was happening, but he knew there was trouble either happening, or going to happen. He turned back to Rav, who nodded, acknowledging that there was trouble.

“Go get ‘em, tiger.” Rav said with a wink and a smirk. Cosmo rolled his piercing yellow eyes and headed to the ship’s airlock, ready to take on whatever awaited his challenge back on Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1975_

 

“Mister Lite? The results are back from experiment #44.”

“Doctor.”

“Sorry, Doctor Lite. The results read negative. The corn didn't survive the blight we subjected it to.” The doctor, a clean-shaven, burly, blue-eyed man appearing in his late 40s, shook his head and slammed his hands on his work table.

“Ten years we’ve been at it. Trying to solve this god forsaken plant disease. We’d be saving future generations from another potato famine!” He stomped out of the room, obviously furious. Lite was followed closely by a woman that had entered with the assistant.  
“Barry.” The woman said calmly after she had caught up with him. “Barry, it'll be alright. We've come so far in the last ten years. I know we’ll reach a solution.”

Lite slowed to a stop and turned to the woman. “Nora… I'm not so sure. There's more failures than successes. I don't know how much longer we can last until our funds run out.”

“Well… maybe we need more outside help.” She paused for a moment. “Are there any scientists you've fallen out of touch with that might help?”

“Hmm… the Walter family, perhaps.” He nodded. “I knew the most recent caretaker of the family manor when he was a young man. He should be around thirty years old by now.”

Nora smiled softly and hugged him. “Contact him. I'm sure he'll be able to help.”

“I'll be sure to do that. I’ll find a phone book.”

 

Weeks later, Lite and his wife Nora had received renewed funding from the Walter Robotics company. Along with that, he received new resources to work with. Peter Walter V had allowed Lite access to work with the mysterious blue matter, with some supervision, of course. It had been an incredible opportunity for him, as blue matter was a tremendous source of learning and discovery. The Walter automatons were embodiments of that fact.

“I cannot thank you enough for giving us this opportunity, Peter. Or do you prefer Mr. Walter?”  
Peter Walter V grinned and shook his hand. “Peter is fine, Barry. I'm not much for formalities. By the way! I never did ask, how’re you and Nora holding up?”  
“We’re fairing well. Thank you. What about you? Meet anybody yet? Any Peter Walter VI’s and VII’s running around?”

Peter chuckled and scratched the back of his head. “Not yet. Haven't really planned on it. But hey, I’m nearly thirty, I have a couple of years to go before settling down.” He shrugged. “Besides, we’re in a good spot as far as the company goes. I want to ride that out for as long as we can.”

“Of course. I will be in the labs. It's good to see you again, Peter.”

“It's good to see you as well. Say hi to Nora for me.” With that, he turned and left the labs.

 

The next few weeks were spent in the testing labs of Walter Manor. Leaps and bounds were made in Doctor Lite's research. He had learned to manipulate the bacteria that was responsible for the blight through the machines in the labs. He wasn't able to figure out how to completely kill off the disease, but he knew he making far more progress than he had ever been before working with blue matter.

Peter's assistants helped him as apposed to Lite hiring his own help. They made sure everything was running smoothly and answered any questions he had on blue matter. Most questions were simple to answer, others took a little bit of asking around to get the response needed. As a result, he never felt uncertain about what he was doing when working with the mysterious substance.

As time past, Lite started to become restless. Slowly, his work became an obsession that he could barely leave alone for more than a few minutes before he started to feel pulled back to it. As a result of his restless nights, insomnia began to develop in the doctor. Peter had attempted multiple times to see to it that he had gotten rest. But each time he tried, minutes later, Lite would be found in the labs continuing to work. Everything else that wasn't his work played second to it. Although Nora had been working on a separate project, Peter had her moved into the same lab as Doctor Lite. From that point forward, it had seemed that the slowly fading doctor was going to make a recovery.

 

“Barry? You're up late again.”  
Nora had been woken up by the loud noises caused by the machines in the lab. When she checked the time, the clock read 3:48 AM.

“It's not late, dear. I’m getting a head start on tomorrow's work.” He didn't look up from the blue matter he was working with. “I'm attempting to splice blight-infected corn with blue matter. I think I might have found the solution!”

She stepped closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I'm glad you’re getting somewhere with your work. But you need sleep.” Nora offered a smile and took one of his hands in her own. Lite pushed her away and turned to her angrily.

“Do not attempt to stop my work! I've come too far to have you end it all!”

A wide-eyed Nora stepped back from him. She was clearly frightened by his actions. Because he had turned his attention to Nora, he had forgotten how dangerous the state of the blue matter was in at the moment. While Lite was distracted with his wife, the blue matter splicing began to grow more and more unstable.

“Go back to your god damn bed and just stuff it! Go back there and worry about your own damn self! I'll be in here, concerned with the future of the human race!”  
She stared back at Lite, horrified by the man her husband had become. “You… you're too obsessed! Do you really think you can save everyone? You're not like that superhero! You're just a man!”

With a scowl, Lite clenched his fists. “Is that what you think? Fine! I'll show you! I'll do better than that ‘superhero’ and prove it to you! To everybody!” Before he could turn back to his work, the unstable blue matter exploded violently. Neither Lite nor his wife had time to react before the bright blue explosion had absorbed both of them.

 

Lite was found no less than half an hour later. He was quickly rushed to the emergency room for the many third degree burns that he had sustained. His work was completely destroyed in the blast. Nora was nowhere to be found. What the Walter Workers told him weeks later, when he had regained consciousness, was that they could only assume the worst for her.

Lite held it all in until he was completely alone in his hospital room. He broke down into tears. He had lost her. He had lost the love of his life and he could not, for the life of him remember how it had happened. He tried to recall the events that had transpired, however his memory was not very reliable. It didn't make any sense to him. Why had this happened? What had he done to deserve this? Nothing… he had done nothing wrong. All he was trying to do was help the world. Nobody wanted his help, it seemed. It was everybody's fault. Yes, that sounded true to his distraught self. It was everyone's fault. If they had just let him work… if they had all just let him help… none of this would've happened. The explosion wouldn't have happened. And he wouldn't have lost his beloved Nora. It was all of their fault.

He looked to the bedside desk and noticed that there was a bouquet of flowers left for him. The tag read that it was from the Walter family. In a fit of rage, he grabbed the bouquet and was about to throw it across the room when he noticed the leaves on the flowers. They all began rapidly developing lesions, which were quickly engulfing the leaf tissue. He dropped the flowers out of shock. The leaves were a sight he was all too familiar with. He could identify that as a sign of blight any day of the week. It didn't take him very long to deduce that he, through what he figured was the explosion, was the one that infected the plants with blight. Lite wasn’t due to be checked out of the hotel for another few weeks, but he knew that when he did, he would figure out just what this mysterious ability was and how well he could control it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_1978_

 

Cosmo stood aboard the SS Alexander, gazing down at a computer reading of Earth. After focusing in on the farming states of Peter Walter IV's home country, he called out to Rav, who arrived at his side in mere seconds.

“Wassup, buddy?” He glanced down at the computer and back to Cosmo in utter confusion. “What am I lookin' at?”

“Look, these are all agriculture areas of Earth. And these areas are all being subjected to a certain plant pathogen that's known as blight.”

He shrugged, looking back at the Commander, “An’ what's that mean for there?”

“Normally, it’s bad. But based off other readings, blight should not be able to thrive in the current conditions down there.”

“I don' follow.”

“What I'm saying is that I believe somebody down there figured out how to weaponize blight. And they're targeting that area.”

Rav let out a sigh and nodded, “I'll get th' airlock ready.”

 

Less than fifteen minutes later, Cosmo was blasting away from the SS Alexander and down to the Earth. Even sooner than those fifteen minutes, he penetrated the atmosphere and approached the farm where he saw that the blight was coming from. As he descended, Cosmo pondered over what resistance he would end up facing. He reasoned that there would be some, and it was his duty to simply apprehend the people in question. No more than that.

When he landed at the farm, he was surprised that he found nobody out to attack him. In fact, there wasn't any sign that there were any large amount of people there. Cosmo was surprised to see that there was only one man standing in the middle of the farm. He appeared as if he were expecting him.

“Commander Cosmo!” the man shouted with glee. As Cosmo approached, he noted that the man had piecing blue eyes and was wearing what looked like a tattered science coat. Below that were normal clothes that were equally tattered. Of what skin he could see, Cosmo could tell that the man was a burn victim. “I've been expecting you!”

Cosmo said nothing for a moment, and let the man ramble on about how long he's been trying to face him. “Who are you?” He simply asked after the man finished.  
The man chuckled before responding, “I am Doctor Blight! And behold, I shall create a blight upon the land and everything I touch shall wither and die!” Cosmo wanted to roll his eyes at the sheer typicality of the situation.

“Alright, Blight. I'll get right to it. Stop what you're doing right now, or it’s going to get messy very quick.” He folded his arms over his chest.

“I'll be damned if you think I'm going to stop what I'm doing. There's no stopping the blight. It'll consume and destroy all of this land.” He turned his back to Cosmo and looked out to the dying fields of food. “Do you know how much the world is dependent on corn? It’s our food. It’s our food’s food. We use corn for so much more past simply feeding ourselves. It should be interesting to see how the loss of it affects our society, shouldn’t it? Well… my society. You are an alien. A creature not of this world. Either way, I hope you enjoy the slow decay of humanity.”

Cosmo stepped forward, finding himself only a few feet from the mad doctor. “That's enough. You're coming with me.”

“Oh, quite on the contrary, no I'm not.” In one swift motion, he turned and decked the Commander square in the jaw, sending him back a few yards. Cosmo didn't anticipate Blight to be so strong. He quickly got to his feet, ready to take on the crazed doctor.

The two fought viciously. Blight throwing punches at speeds that oddly matched Cosmo’s own, and the Commander parrying those blows with some ease. The only advantage Cosmo could hold over his opponent was his ability to fly. “Commander, really?” Blight called out to Cosmo, attempting to taunt him. “Why are you stalling? The longer you wait, the more I shall spread the blight!”

Cosmo stopped in mid-flight and stared down at Doctor Blight. He knew he wasn't bluffing. He needed to stop the weaponized pathogen from spreading any further. With his sun beam stare, Cosmo blasted the areas around the doctor as a warning.

“Tell me how to stop the blight! Where’s the machine controlling it?” Cosmo shouted angrily.

Blight appeared unfazed by Cosmo's threat, and simply stared back at him. “There's nothing man-made out there in control of the pathogen. Blight cannot be controlled by a mere machine.”

Suddenly, it all became clear to Cosmo. He didn't know why he didn't see it earlier, but now he did. He could sense it. The man had blue matter in his system all the way down to the molecular level. Somehow, the matter was allowing him control over blight, as well as superhuman strength. At that moment, the Commander realized that there was only two ways that this situation could end.

“Doctor, I'm going to ask you this one more time. Stop the blight. End this before I do something I'll regret.”  
“There’s no stopping it, Commander. Soon the whole world will suffer the wrath of Doctor Blight!” With that, the doctor let out a maniacal laugh. That was it for the Commander. If something wasn’t done quick, the world would most definitely suffer. Acting on a gut feeling, Cosmo blasted forward and tackled Doctor Blight. The doctor tried to struggle free from the far stronger space being. Cosmo ignored each pounding fist that struck his back and flew right into the side of the seemingly deserted barn house. The Commander flew straight through every wooden beam, haystack, and stable as if they weren’t even there. Exiting out the other end of the barn, Cosmo crash landed on the ground, still holding the crazed doctor in his grip. He got to his feet and stared down at the man.

Blight was unmoving. After giving him an autopsy, Cosmo determined that the man's skull had been crushed and his spinal cord broken. Blight had been killed. Without him to control the blight, Cosmo reasoned that the pathogen would die off in the current environment. It was over.

“Hey, Commander!” Cosmo heard the voice of Rav Starburner over the comms. “The blight's startin' ta disappear! Looks like ya took care of it!”

Cosmo nodded and didn't respond to Starburner. He couldn't help but feel sorrow for taking a human life, no matter how horrible he had been, it was for the better of the humans that Cosmo took him out. After thinking that, Cosmo evaluated his last thoughts. Humans. He had referred to them as humans. Not as his people. He wasn’t human. He was something else entirely. 

 

In the weeks that followed, Commander Cosmo had received some considerable backlash for the death of Doctor Blight, aka Barry Lite. All of the sudden there was much more protest against Cosmo's presence on Earth. Not that there was none before, but now that he had killed a man, suddenly people worried that he'd kill again. Governments around the world began to promise their land as areas that were human friendly, and completely against “alien activity.” Cosmo tried his best not to let this alienation of his presence get to him, however with each passing year, the hatred of protesters only grew more and more. And he feared that one day, humanity would reject Cosmo's help and wish him away. He knew he would not be prepared for it.


End file.
